Reports

Small firms play an increasingly important role in U.S. manufacturing, and now account for almost half of America's manufacturing employment.

Dense networks of these small manufacturers are vital to the process of taking a product from concept to market, and the exchange of manufacturing know-how across suppliers is essential for the diffusion of the new products and innovative processes that give U.S. manufacturing its cutting edge.

The growing importance of data in the economy is hard to dispute. But what does this mean for workers and jobs? A lot, as it turns out: higher paying (over $40/hour), faster growing jobs.

In this report we identify occupations where data analysis and processing are central to the work performed and measure the size of employment and earnings in these occupations, as well as in the industries that have the highest concentration of these data occupations.

Executive Summary - Accurately determining how much of our economy's total production is American-made can be a daunting task. However, data from the Commerce Department's U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) can help shed light on the dollar value of what America produces, and what percentage of the dollar value of an industry's output that is considered domestic.

More than one quarter of American homes have not adopted Internet service, many citing cost as their primary reason. Since market competition can significantly affect consumer prices, we set out to ask: how many Internet service providers (ISPs) are available to consumers at different levels of download speeds?

Large firms depend on suppliers for most of their value-added. Many suppliers are small and their viability is closely tied to their ability to access and manage working capital. The Obama Administration’s SupplierPay initiative was developed to bring companies together to address the working capital challenges facing small firms. This paper explores the potential economic benefits -- throughout the supply chain -- of reducing suppliers’ working capital costs.

The temporary help services industry has bounced back from the recession and continues to grow. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, the temporary help industry only accounts for 2 percent of all employment in the U.S. economy (as of July 2014), but accounts for 11 percent of all the jobs created since the end of the recession. Growth has continued steadily in 2014, with 107,100 temp jobs added during the first seven months of the year.

Everyone is talking about the importance of data to our society as data improves all of our decisions: those we make as individuals, as businesses, as governments.

Government has been in the data business for quite some time, going back to the first Decennial Census in 1790. Since then, the U.S. Government has played a key role in providing valuable data to our country.

The U.S. manufacturing sector has turned a corner. For the first time in over 10 years, output and employment are growing steadily. Manufacturing output has grown 38 percent since the end of the recession, and the sector accounts for 19 percent of the rise in real gross domestic product (GDP) since then. Through May, the sector has added 646,000 jobs, and manufacturers are actively recruiting to fill another 243,000 positions.[1]

The United States is an increasingly attractive location for business investment from global companies. In AT Kearney’s 2013 FDI Confidence Index, the United States surged past countries like China, Brazil and India to become the country with the top FDI prospects globally, as ranked by 302 companies representing 28 countries and multiple industry sectors.[i] This marks the first time that the US occupied the #1 spot in the survey since 2001.[ii] In a survey of U.S.

The digital, or Internet, economy has transformed many aspects of our lives over the past two decades. How we communicate, entertain ourselves, make decisions, and do business continues to evolve as the digital economy grows in size and importance. Given this transformation, it is becoming even more important for policymakers to consider how the Internet affects our lives and the economy as a whole.

This report, based on data from the Census Bureau’s July 2011 Current Population Survey (“CPS”) Computer and Internet Use Supplement, updates and substantially expands on the previous study in this series, Exploring the Digital Nation: Computer and Internet Use at Home, issued in 2011. For the first time in eight years, this study goes beyond new findings on computer and Internet adoption in the United States to also present data on Americans’ online activities – what Americans do once they connect to the Internet.

The United States has been the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) since 2006. Every day, foreign companies establish new operations in the United States or provide additional capital to established businesses. With the world’s largest consumer market, skilled and productive workers, a highly innovative environment, appropriate legal protections, a predictable regulatory environment, and a growing energy sector, the United States offers an attractive investment climate for firms across the globe.

Hurricane/Post Tropical Storm Sandy struck the New Jersey coast on October 29, 2012 inflicting billions of dollars of damage. This report examines potential long-term economic effects of the storm in terms of losses and gains in economic activity. This impact analysis is for all the counties in New Jersey and the 13 counties in lower New York that that were declared as disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

About the Economics & Statistics Administration

The Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) plays three key roles within the Department of Commerce (DOC). ESA provides timely economic analysis, disseminates national economic indicators, and oversees the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). In this latter role, ESA works closely with the leadership at BEA and Census on high priority management, budget, employment, and risk management issues, integrating the work of these agencies with the priorities and requirements of the Department of Commerce and other government entities.